October 3, 2000 - A veteran of several overseas races, Dave Cline, parts
manager and shipping specialist for Team Rahal, has the task of organizing
and packing the team for the upcoming CART race in Australia. During the
season, Cline is one of the team's shop-based foremen responsible for the
purchasing of parts, processing incoming invoices and building maintenance.
However, when CART heads overseas for a race in another country, Cline not
only leads the effort to organize and pack the team's equipment, but is also
is in charge of making sure it's unloaded safely at their destination and
then repacked for the long journey home.

HOW MANY OVERSEAS RACES HAVE YOU HELPED THE TEAM
PREPARE FOR? DAVE CLINE (TEAM RAHAL) - "I've done close to 20 now, I'd
say. I've been Australia to six times, Brazil five and Japan four. And then
next year, of course, we'll be doing five overseas races instead of three
with the two in England and Germany."

HOW DO YOU GO ABOUT PACKING AND LOADING EVERYTHING
FOR A RACE THAT IS OVERSEAS? - "My job is to maintain the containers
that we ship the equipment in and make sure they're in good condition. The
transporters just arrived last night at eight o'clock last night from
Houston and will leave again at five o'clock in the morning on Thursday. In
between then we've got to build four cars back up, pack all the parts and
get them on the road, which I have to do without giving the race crew any
more extra work. Basically they put their toolboxes away on the truck just
like they do on a regular race weekend, so I put everything from the trucks
into the containers, compile the shipping manifest and document it all. The
truck drivers help me to load the two race transporters with cars and a
third semi with a box trailer for the equipment. My job is to organize, pack
and load everything without creating more work for the guys who just got
back from the track so they can concentrate on the cars."

SO YOU PACK THE EQUIPMENT AND THE MECHANICS TAKE
CARE OF THE CARS? - "Yeah, they just do the cars. I pull all of the
equipment out of the transporters that we don't have doubles of, like pit
equipment, and pack it into the shipping containers, which are then loaded
into the third cargo truck. Fuel tanks are provided for us in Australia, but
we have to have our valves and things like that. We have an ongoing
checklist and our manifest consists of about 43 pages of equipment. So we'll
take three trucks to Indianapolis - the two race transporters loaded with
the cars and the cargo truck - and that'll be loaded onto airplanes by FedEx
for us."

SO WHO MAKES THE FINAL DECISION ON WHAT OR WHAT NOT
TO BRING? - "The crew chiefs. We have a set amount of stuff that stays
packed all year long and then you have your checklist. In this situation,
it's the second last race of the year and you might have a few less spare
parts where at the beginning of the year you were kind of 'fat' on spares,
so we try to stick to that list pretty much. We already made it through the
last two overseas races with this amount of stuff, so we try to keep it at a
limit because you're only allowed around 8,500 pounds of equipment per car.
Above and beyond that you have to pay $4.65 per pound, which can add up
pretty quickly if you go too far over the limit and we don't add a lot of
things we don't need."

OTHER THAN THE CARS, SPECIFICALLY WHAT ELSE DO YOU
TAKE WITH YOU? - "We take anything and everything we would need to
maintain the cars during a race weekend, like nuts and bolts, air equipment,
suspension uprights, turbos, headers, basically all the spares we take to an
American race but in less quantity. Both teams don't have spares; you have
to do a little more sharing. Instead of taking two of each cable, you take
one of each cable. Basically when you leave for an overseas trip you're
going there to maintain a car, not build a car. When you're in the United
States, you have enough stuff to build cars, and that's kind of the
mentality you have to look at when you're doing this. Reynard is also at the
race, so if we have a catastrophe and need some parts, they have a sizeable
number of parts available for us at the racetrack."

DO YOU TAKE ANY OF THE 'EXTRA' ITEMS, LIKE GOLF
CARTS OR SCOOTERS? - "No, we don't take that stuff. We take the timing
stands, all the radios, six engines, 14 sets of wheels, four cars ... you
still take a lot of stuff but you don't have a lot of the amenities. We
still cater all of our food in and things like that, but you take care of it
over there. We've still got to take all the drivers' stuff, like four
helmets each for both Max (Papis) and Kenny (Brack), four driving suits,
four pairs of driving shoes ... you don't take any comfort away from
anyone."

WHAT'S YOUR ITINERARY FOR PREPARING FOR THE TRIP TO
AUSTRALIA? - "I've spent the last two weeks while the team has been on
the road preparing cases, getting labels set up, breaking down the manifests
for each container so the crew has a checklist for what was in it the last
time we went so we pack the same things. The truck drivers leave on Thursday
morning for Indianapolis with the equipment. Once CART has cleared the
equipment through Customs, the planes, I believe three 747's, arrive on
Saturday when they're loaded and depart for Australia. Once in Australia,
they'll bring the equipment to the track and unload it into our garage and
we have to basically go about setting up a shop from scratch with the stuff
we have."

HOW QUICKLY FOLLOWING THE RACE DO YOU HAVE TO HAVE
EVERYTHING PACKED FOR THE TRIP BACK TO THE UNITED STATES? - "We usually
get everything packed up in two to three hours. It's a pretty big job and
everybody participates - the engineers, the truck drivers, mechanics - so it
goes pretty fast. I actually will spend the day Sunday packing things that
we're done using and organizing crates and other things that need to be
packed."

WHAT ASPECTS OF THIS TASK DOES CART HELP YOU WITH?
DO THEY CLEAR CUSTOMS FOR YOU - "Yeah, they do it as a bulk thing. It's
viewed as a low-risk deal, so we give all the paperwork to CART and as we're
unloading our equipment they review it and show it to the Customs people and
they clear it as it goes along. At any point Customs can open any box and
check the contents to the manifests. The biggest things they look at are the
engine and chassis numbers because they're the high-value items."

WHAT ARE YOUR DUTIES ONCE EVERYTHING IS UNPACKED? -
"I help get everything set up, I go shopping for paint and things that
you can't take, I get snacks, I arrange the catering and make sure it's
taken care of, any special needs for the drivers, if we need something
that's not at the track I go around and get it. My job is to take care of
the amenities, so I stay pretty busy."

WHAT KIND OF THINGS CONCERN YOU ABOUT TRIPS LIKE
THIS? - "The big things is making sure the paperwork is in order. When
you show up in Indianapolis you want everything to be in line and not have
any glitches. I'm concerned about if forgot something or I didn't put
something down properly. That's a reason why we like to go early in the
loading process. We always try to be the first people in so that the Customs
people are fresh and you're not getting them after five or six or seven
teams have just been through there. You get there and you're stuff is all
set up right and you deal with CART and Customs in a professional matter so
that our stuff gets through as smooth as possible. And it's the same when
you're packing to come home.

HAVE YOU EVERY HAD AN INSTANCE WHEN YOU'VE FORGOTTEN
SOMETHING? - "The good thing is that there's usually a couple of
stragglers along the way, and you can pack those guys up pretty good. We've
taken crates that were 40 inches long and 20 inches wide and 20 inches wide.
I've shipped plenums over for engines that weren't complete, partial
gearboxes, bodywork that they decided to use, down to a guy who forgot his
helmet. And that's why we have the checklists that we use. I have a pretty
good system that every box has what was in it the last time so they don't
forget it. And you trade and barter with other people at the track because
they're in the same boat that you are."

WHAT KIND OF CHALLENGES WILL THE BACK-TO-BACK RACES
IN EUROPE PRESENT YOU WITH? - "I don't know how CART is going to do
that? Is CART going to have an airplane that can fly two or three racecars
over there? I mean, we're going to two oval races and you could very easily
write off a car, so I think it's going to be a big concern how CART is going
to deal with that. I feel that you have to have three or four car pallets
sitting here prepared to ship a car in case you total one because nobody
will have the facilities to rebuild a car if they have an accident. I think
CART is going to have a contingency plan for week number two, because if a
team wrecks a car you can't expect them to run with one car, that would be
unfair. Next year we're planning to have six cars instead of five because
the season is so fast-paced, so that's the biggest concern with those two
races."

WHAT'S YOUR PLAN IN REGARD TO PREPPING THE CARS AND
GETTING THEM OUT TO AUSTRALIA - "Once Customs is cleared in
Indianapolis, we'll load the stuff back in the trailers, come back to
Columbus on Tuesday afternoon, Tuesday evening and get stuff started for
Wednesday morning. Basically we have to have the cars ready to go Saturday
night to go to Fontana on Sunday, so that's where I'm glad that I don't have
to travel to the North American races (laughter)."

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